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| A Saturn IB AS-201 launch cover from "SpaceCraft Swanson", postmarked at Cape Canaveral with a machine cancel on February 26, 1966, signed by Konrad Dannenberg, a member of Wernher von Braun’s rocket team. |
AS-201, launched on February 26, 1966, was the first unmanned test flight of an entire production Block I Apollo command and service module (CSM) and the Saturn IB launch vehicle. The spacecraft consisted of the second Block I command module and the first Block I service module. The suborbital flight was a partially successful demonstration of the service propulsion system and the reaction control systems of both modules, and successfully demonstrated the capability of the command module's heat shield to survive re-entry from low Earth orbit.
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| Photo: The last stage of a Saturn 1B rocket displayed in a ceremony on August 31, 1965. |
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| A Saturn IB AS-201 launch cover featuring the "KSC Officials" stamped cachet, postmarked at Kennedy Space Center with a machine cancel on February 26, 1966. |
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| A Saturn IB AS-201 launch cover featuring the "KSC Officials" stamped cachet, postmarked at Kennedy Space Center with a hand cancel on February 26, 1966. |
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| Photo: Saturn IB AS-201 shoots toward space on February 26, 1966. |
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| A Saturn IB AS-201 launch cover from "Velvatone", postmarked at Cape Canaveral with a hand cancel on February 26, 1966. |
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| Photo: "The sketch shows the approximate flight of the Apollo missile launched Saturday from Cape Kennedy, Fla. The mightiest rocket ever built in the United States, a Saturn I-B, was used to hurl the first unmanned Apollo over a blazing re-entry course to a landing in the Atlantic ocean where ships waited to pick it up. February 26, 1966" |
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| Photo: Navy frogmen attach flotation equipment to the Apollo AS-201 command module following splashdown. |
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| A Saturn IB AS-201 recovery cover featuring a magenta "Morris Beck" rubber-stamped cachet, postmarked aboard USS Boxer with a very rare hand cancel on February 26, 1966. |
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| A Saturn IB AS-201 recovery cover featuring a blue "Morris Beck" rubber-stamped cachet, postmarked aboard USS Boxer with a very rare hand cancel on February 26, 1966. |
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| Photo: The recovered Apollo AS‑201 command module shows reentry scorching on its heat shield and is covered with cloth before it is transported to NASA for post-flight evaluation. |
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| A Saturn IB AS-201 recovery cover featuring a blue "Morris Beck" rubber-stamped cachet, postmarked aboard USS Boxer with a machine cancel on February 26, 1966, signed by the commanding officer, Albert O Morton. |
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| A Saturn IB AS-201 recovery cover with a printed “Morris Beck B627” cachet, postmarked aboard USS Boxer with a machine cancel on February 26, 1966. The cover was originally intended for the USS Kaskaskia, but this particular cover was forwarded to the USS Boxer instead. |
